The Blue Paul or Blue Poll Terrier is here identified as a
working Terrier for want of better classification. This strain was of
the Bull Terrier family and, as the name suggested, came in a pleasing
bluish slate color. The dog had all of the attributes of the Bull
Terrier although it lacked the refinement of later animals. According
to fragmentary descriptions now available, this Terrier was closer in
conformation to the English Staffordshire Terrier than to the
presently-known Bull Terrier.
The Blue Paul was classed as a Scotch fighter. The greatest breeding
activity took place in the lowlands between Kirkintilloch and
Edinburgh where the strain existed and flourished for about seventy or
eighty years. There is no doubt that the Blue Paul variety of Bull
Terrier had Scotch blood in its veins. Brown (
referring to Thomas
Brown's 1829 book Biographical Sketches and Authentic Anecdotes of
Dogs), when speaking of the third variety of the Scotch
Terrier, mentioned that it was a larger dog up to 18 inches at the
withers, and had longer legs than the rest of the tribe. "It is from
this breed that the best bull-terriers have been produced," he wrote.
One of the first notices of the Blue Paul is seen in Alken's colored
etching on badger baiting (1820). Here a white Bull Terrier and a Blue
Paul Terrier are shown engaged in a badger-baiting contest. The white
is at grips with the badger and the handler is attempting to loose the
unfortunate animal by biting the Bull Terrier's tail. By 1880, or
thereabouts, the strain began to lose size and the old sixty-pound
heavyweights were no longer seen. The lightweights that came into
vogue were not up to the work and with this deterioration the strain
slowly slipped into oblivion.
Blue Pauls threw many colored offspring, mostly blues and brindles.
Occasionally a red appeared which was called a "Red Smut" because of
lack of clarity in the color. This type was never numerous and few
references to it can be found though data are available that document
its existence. The rare variety is mentioned to aid researchers who
may come across the name in some obscure reference.